A Finnish sci-fi comedy about Nazis invading Earth has become the most talked-about movie at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

Iron Sky is a B-movie spoof that has been screening at the festival’s sidebar event, called Panorama. The plot revolves around a group of Nazis who escape to the moon at the end of World War II to plan a new assault. Interest in the film has raised eyebrows at the Berlin film gala, which is more used to heavyweight fare.

Iron Sky’s plot is set in motion in 2018, when a Nazi soldier comes face to face with a US astronaut. Added to the farce is a US President with more than a passing resemblance to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, and a navy cruiser called the USS George W Bush. Its appeal has been hailed by some members of the international press as a sign that Germans are now at peace with their Nazi past.

Yet local journalists are more cautious. “Although I heard that audiences were laughing out loud, in my screening… it wasn’t like that,” said Kerstin Sopke of the Associated Press. “It’s still a delicate subject here, and you have to be really careful how it’s done. I was a little bit wary, but actually I think they did the comedy well.

“The inclusion of so much US satire when there is a presidential election campaign was also holding up a mirror to our time.”